


Alex, Luke, and a long painful conversation with Luke's dad

by jennandanica



Series: Citadel: Luke Evans and Alex Skarsgard [141]
Category: Actor RPF, Citadel (Journalfen RPG), True Blood RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-08 11:29:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14104404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennandanica/pseuds/jennandanica





	Alex, Luke, and a long painful conversation with Luke's dad

[backdated to early 2014; takes place in Wales the day after [Alex makes Luke's mother cry](http://alex-skarsgard.dreamwidth.org/3173.html)]

The tour underground was as fascinating as Luke remembers, their tour guide excellent with a fantastic dry wit. His parents had obviously enjoyed themselves, as had Alex, and now they're touring the above-ground parts, the old workings and the museum that tells more about the history of coal mining in Wales and what it was like to be a miner and a miner's wife.

Luke walks ahead with his mum, letting Alex have his dad as planned.

"Have you been in a mine before?" David asks Alex, reading along the timeline for the mine's operations.

Alex shakes his head. "Sweden exports a lot of iron ore and copper. I've never been inside any kind of mine before, though." Hands stuffed in his jeans pockets, he studies a photograph from the early twentieth century, showing a group of Welsh miners paused and posing on their lunch break. The men look... grim. "I can't imagine how tough that must have been, to grow up in a community knowing that, at a certain age, you were going to start doing this one thing, no matter how dangerous it was or how much you hated it. Men needed to support their families, and these guys," he gestures towards the picture he's been studying, "they just didn't have any other options."

"A number of men in our family were miners," David says with a nod. "My gransha, Yvonne's gransha, their dads before them. Aberbargoed once had the largest waste tip in Europe and Bargoed Colliery ran till 1977 but they've flattened it out now. The tip, I mean. Made it a park."

"And how did the region manage, once the mines started shutting down?" Alex asks, looking at David. He could read the answer on the wall, sure, but it seems like Luke actually wants the two of them to talk. To _each other_.

"It didn't," David says, slowly moving along to the next display. "Not really. The valleys never recovered, unemployment's still high, among the highest around, lots of drug use, petty crime," he continues. "A lot of people moved away, some back to where they came from, some to school, work..." He shrugs. "We had 18,000 people in 1921 and now we're maybe half that."

Alex winces at the bleak images. "Are you grateful that Luke was able to build a successful career away?" he asks softly, carefully. He's not trying to trick David into giving approval where he doesn't want to, but he does want to hear the man admit that he's actually _proud_ of his phenomenal son, dammit. Just once.

David looks at Alex, wondering if there's something behind the question or if the lad's just a bit thick. "Of course I am," he says. "I would have preferred to have him here, with us, if it had worked out, but he's always loved music and with the scholarships and everything... He's done well for himself."

It takes a ton of effort, but Alex sets his jaw and grinds his teeth together rather than snapping back at his... father-in-law. _Done well for himself?_ What the hell kind of praise is that? Could David sound more dismissive if he tried? _Probably_ , Alex figures, and unclenches his jaw. "He has, yeah. And he's incredibly talented. Does he get that from your side of the family?"

"No, not at all," David says quickly, shaking his head. "It's all his mum and her side. But he's taken it much further than any of them. First London and the stage, and now films. He's put a lot of hard work in and it's paid off."

"He does work very hard," Alex agrees with a nod. "Talent and luck aren't anything without all the effort he puts in. He deserves every bit of success he's earned." Maybe he's trying too hard. But what the hell else can they agree on? "Wales is really beautiful country." God.

David nods, glancing behind them at his wife and Luke who are laughing away, their arms linked together. "Who are you closer to?" he asks abruptly. "Your mum or your dad?"

"Ummm... huh." A little taken aback by the suddenness of the question - although he himself was on the verge of bringing up the weather, which surely would've been worse - Alex has to consider his answer. "I'm close to both of them, in different ways. I mean, my dad's had such a big acting career, so he's the one I talk to about work stuff. I guess I'm closer to my mom, though, because she's the one I talk to about the rest of my life. And even though I'm the oldest, she still kind of babies me," he admits with a sheepish smile.

"I think most mums are like that," David says, watching Yvonne and Luke. "You're lucky you have work in common with your dad. It must make things easier."

Alex isn't really even pretending to read the displays on the walls anymore. He eyes David sidelong. "Is it harder for you to talk to Luke now than when he was younger?"

David makes a noncommittal noise and rubs a hand over the back of his neck, but finally he says, "A bit. We don't really move in the same world anymore."

_You never really did_ , thinks Alex, but he keeps that insight to himself. He follows David into the next room of exhibits, checking to see that Luke and Yvonne are still lagging back enough to be out of hearing. "I mentioned to your wife yesterday that I'd really like to have my parents meet the two of you. I'm sure they'd love to come visit you here in Wales, if you don't want to travel. But Yvonne said this would have to be your call."

He should have expected the request. It's what people do when they fall in love, get married. Have their parents meet. But for David, it's fraught with problems. After all, they could already be disfellowshipped for having Luke and Alex here, never mind that they're not staying with them. "Will you give me some time to think about it?" he asks. "I'd be pleased to meet your parents. I'm sure they're lovely people. But our church... Yvonne and I need to talk."

"Yeah, of course." David and Yvonne need time to talk? Hell, that makes it sound like she might actually have some input into the decision, which Alex isn't certain he believes. But the suggestion that David needs time to think... Oh, yeah. Alex is sure of that. And maybe getting the Evans parents together with the Skarsgard parents isn't a great idea, anyway: Alex is working his damnedest right now to keep from blatantly throwing the fact of his marriage in David's face. But there's no reason to think that Stellan Skarsgard - champion of bluntness and with a zeal for putting people on the spot - would even bother with that.

"I know you think we're being unreasonable," David says softly. He's not an idiot. He knows what Alex thinks of them. Of him. "That it's an easy choice, our son over our church, but you don't live here and you weren't brought up in our faith. This is a small town with a small congregation and there's nowhere else for us to go, nowhere to start to over, not without _starting over_ and that's a hard thing to do at my age, with the work that I do. Here I have seniority, we have our house, we have our family, our friends. It's not that simple."

Slowly, Alex nods. "I'm working hard to try and understand all that," he murmurs. "But... you're worried about making new friends and fitting into a new community. I'm worried about you losing your whole connection to the future."

"What do you mean?" David asks. As far as he's concerned his life is here and Luke's is with Alex, and that's as much future as any of them have now.

Shocked, Alex turns to look at his father-in-law's face. "...Seriously?" he asks after a moment, wondering if they are somehow conducting two different conversations. "He's your only child. He's all the impact you'll leave on this world." The Church seems to be all about the _next_ world, though, right. He gets that.

"I don't believe that," David says, stiffening in response. "The work we do as regular publishers, the efforts we make to witness informally, to bring people to the truth, that's the impact we'll make on this world."

Sick fascination is filling him against his will, and Alex leans against the wall to give David his utterly complete attention. "Then why did you have a kid at all, if you really believe that?"

"Because children are a blessing and a gift," David says calmly. "And the purpose of marriage _is_ procreation, but as much as we love our children, we still have our duty to serve Jehovah and preach the good news of God's kingdom."

_As much as we love our children, we still..._ Christ. Alex can't get past the whole fucked-up structure of the concept. "I'm not trying to be insulting," he clarifies quietly, wanting to make sure David knows that. "I mean, I really wasn't raised with any religion at all, so I don't pretend to understand it in general. But... if you wanted one, then why not two?" It's something he's been wondering for a good long time now, although he'd readily admit his own overlarge family surely influenced him that way.

It shouldn't bother him after all these years, but it does and David steels himself against the emotion he feels tightening his jaw. "We weren't to be blessed that way," he says softly, returning his attention to the displays in front of them. "Luke's birth... was difficult for his mother."

"Oh." Alex frowns, and he wishes he'd never asked. "I'm really sorry about that." It's probably suicidal, he knows, but he pushes on anyway. "Does spreading the word make up for that at all?"

But before David can answer, Luke joins them. "Mum says she's getting cold," he says to his dad, "and you guys look like you're getting _way_ too serious," he adds, smiling at Alex. "Are we done or should we grab the other coats from the car?"

"Whatever you think," Alex agrees brightly, deciding it's almost certainly for the best that Luke interrupted when he did. "Can I take this off now?" he asks, reaching up to touch the miner's helmet he's been wearing since they were underground for the tour.

Luke laughs. "Not until Dad takes a picture of us," he says, handing his phone to David and wrapping his arm around Alex's waist, snuggling in close and smiling for the camera.

He's more than a little shocked at the public display of affection, but Alex immediately slips his arm around his lover in turn. "Absolutely," he mutters through gritted teeth, "smile for the camera."

It's all David can do to take the picture before he's handing the phone back to Luke with a muttered, "I'd better go to see to your mum. We'll meet you at the car," the boys quickly left behind as he hurries to join Yvonne.

"I'm going to assume the two of you weren't talking about mining, or Wales, or the beautiful weather we're having," Luke says with a smile, not relinquishing his hold on Alex for an instant.

"I... think I might have mentioned Wales," Alex answers under his breath. "Maybe once." He sighs, and quits trying to fake a grin. "I'm sorry."

Luke shrugs. "I'm the one who just made my dad take a picture of the two of us holding each other. I think you're good," he says, taking Alex's hand as they slowly make their way through the rest of the building. "What did he have to say?"

"Eh. Nothing much specific," Alex lies -- as if he'd actually ever tell Luke that he's always been his father's second priority. "Do we have to ride back with them? Or can we go straight back to the inn?"

"We can have them drop us off," Luke says. "They know we need to pack and my mum said she's still full from lunch." He smiles at his husband. "What about you? Are you hungry? I can get them to heat us up some pies in the pub."

"Christ." That means more than a half-hour crammed in the car with Luke's parents. "Yeah, okay." Alex squeezes his husband's hand.

Luke gives Alex a look, concerned, suddenly worried that the two men were being _exactly_ as serious as he feared. Fuck. "It's almost over," he reassures him, kissing his shoulder before they step out into the light, his mum and dad already in the car. "Tomorrow we see my nana and gransha and then we're off to your family." Where they can fucking breathe and kiss and touch. Christ is right.

"Special torture!" Alex teases him with a grin. "Although for once we might actually stun Elin speechless, and not just the other way around."

Luke laughs. "God, I hope she says yes. It would make things so much easier," he says with a sigh as they approach the car.

"That's for sure." Alex shakes his head. He eyes Yvonne, waiting for them. "I think we're kind of done talking about Welsh weather, though. What next? Sinners and hellfire?" Half an hour trapped in a tiny car, yep.

"Behave," Luke admonishes, shaking his head and swatting Alex on the arm. Although he doesn't really blame him. "Ask about my cousins... or when my parents were growing up, or just enjoy the scenery."

"Great idea." Alex grins. "Even better, you do all the talking. I'll pretend I'm all mined-out and need a nap."

"Deal," Luke says, kissing Alex even though his parents are watching. Or maybe because they are. "I'll wake you when we get there."


End file.
